As a little girl, Cinderella was my favorite princess. She had blonde hair like me, which made us basically twins, and I loved all her animal friends. I was enchanted by the simple story of a servant girl, who remained kind and good and won the heart of the prince with her simple beauty and grace. When I got older, though, I started to see how this story was rather shallow. Of course, many of the old princess movies are; a young, pretty, girl survives some misfortune, then is rescued by the handsome prince whose only personal detail is his name. Cinderella’s prince doesn’t even have a real name, going by “Prince Charming”.
In 2015, Disney came out with the live action Cinderella starring Lily James, directed by Kenneth Branagh. The movie did not have incredible marketing, and I remember hearing about it for the first time when my mom bought us tickets for the theater. After my first viewing, though, I fell in love with the live action Cinderella, and it quickly shot to the top of my list. The movie had a star studded cast with Cate Blanchet playing the evil step-mother, Richard Madden (most notably from Game of Thrones) playing the prince, Helena Bonham Carter as the fairy godmother, and Stellan Skarsgard as the grand duke. Kenneth Branagh took the animated Cinderella story and dug deeper into each character’s motivation and development, adding an overarching theme of courage and kindness. The movie is sweet and fun, full of beautiful colors and costumes, but its tremendous deepening from the animated movie makes it one of my favorite films yet. Every character has added depth in this live action depiction, but today I will just be reviewing how the evil step-mother, the prince, and Cinderella herself, portray versions of courage and kindness.
We meet Cinderella as a baby with a happily married mother and father who call her by her given name: Ella. The movie is narrated by the fairy godmother, Helena Bonham Carter, who sets the stage for Ella’s nearly perfect life where her parents taught her to see the world “not always as it was, but as perhaps it could be, with just a little bit of magic”. As a young girl, Ella already shows kindness to her farm animals, and is encouraged by her mother to believe that animals can have relationships with us, and that fairy godmothers are real. The first ten-ish minutes of the movie so quickly wrap a warm hug around every audience member so that when Ella’s mother becomes sick it already brings tears to my eyes. As her mother lays on her deathbed, she asks Ella’s forgiveness for leaving her so early in life. She tells Ella about a “great secret” that will see her through “all the trials that life can offer” saying, “you must always remember this: have courage and be kind…you have more kindness in your little finger then most people possess in their whole body, and it has power…and magic”.
Ella grows in grace and beauty, and the pain of her mother’s death turns “to memory”. Her stepmother and stepsisters do not join the family until adulthood, and when they step into the narrative, they are not purely evil right away. The evil step-mother, named Lady Tremaine, (Cate Blanchet) comes to this new marriage as a widow, courageously marrying for the sake of providing for her daughters, even though she knows she will not feel the same love she felt in her first marriage. Although she is not overtly kind to Ella, she livens up the quiet farmhouse with parties and laughter, and reminds her daughters not to be too critical of the home and lifestyle that was so different from their previous one. Unfortunately, when Ella’s father does die, Lady Tremaine takes her own grief and jealousy out on Ella, piling on all the chores that used to be completed by a paid staff. She also encourages her daughters to abuse Ella’s kindness, slowly pushing Ella out of her own household by disinviting her to eat with them and calling her “Cinderella” because of the ash on her face from the fireplace.
Ella is finally driven to an outburst of anger and frustration, but in a healthy coping habit, she does not take it out on her step-family, but escapes to the woods on horseback. This creates a chance meeting with the prince, who is also in the forest with his hunting party. As a farm girl, she does not recognize the prince by his appearance, and although surprised at this, the prince leans into his anonymity, perhaps happy to be treated as a regular person for once. His curiosity is piqued by Ella and her funny way of speaking, as she talks of the animals as if she knows them as friends. He takes his time talking with her and showing his concern about her being deep in the woods alone. He listens well, and is quickly influenced by her care and intentionality, leading him to call off the stag hunt and courageously tell the grand duke that “just because it’s what’s done, doesn’t mean it’s what should be done…or something like that” as he was repeating Ella’s wise words.
We learn that his father calls him Kit, and once back at the palace, we see this father-son relationship as one filled with respect and love, further deepening the prince’s character and credibility as a man with a good heart. Kit excitedly tells the king about the pretty girl in the forest, but also listens to his concerns about marrying a commoner instead of a princess from another kingdom. Their compromise is to open the invitations to the ball to everyone, “not just the nobility,” because there was a war (which is given little detail) and the prince thinks that the whole kingdom could use a celebration, even if his secret motive is to see Ella again.
When the ball finally does come, everyone is stunned by Ella’s beauty and fashionably late entrance. The prince meets her on the dance floor, not letting her get lost in the crowd, but after one dance, he walks with her to a secret garden, and it is inferred that they simply talk until midnight. Kit shows courage in stepping up to Ella on the dance floor because she is unknown and not approved by the king and grand duke. He shares a sweet evening with her, and is so entranced by her presence that he forgets to ask her name (which is definitely a miss on his part). It is apparent that the two come from very different backgrounds, but Ella still makes space for Kit to share that even in his comfortable life, he still struggles with his father’s wishes for an arranged marriage. However, even in his frustrations, he does not speak ill of his father, calling him a “wise ruler, and a loving father”. It takes great courage to stand up to one’s enemies, but it takes even more courage to stand up to people you love, and Kit eventually does stand up to his father on the matter of marriage.
As the king falls ill and lays on his deathbed, towards the end of the movie, he asks Kit to marry the princess from a neighboring kingdom, saying “What if I commanded you to do so?”. The prince responds, “I love and respect you, but I will not.” Then he shares something he learned from Ella, “I believe, we need not look outside of our borders for guidance or strength, what we need is right before us, and we need only have courage and be kind to see it”. His father smiles upon this revelation and shows humility as he says “perhaps in the little time left to me, I can become the father you deserve, you must not marry for advantage, you must marry for love”. He and Kit share a laugh thinking about Ella and her lost shoe, but then Kit thanks his father, and with a mixture of love, relief, and grief, he tearfully curls up on the bed, not as a king and a prince, but as a loving father comforting his son.
When Kit eventually starts the search for Ella, it is noted that “the time for mourning had passed” after his father died. This small detail implies that even though Kit met Ella only twice, and much time had passed, he still remembered her and longed to truly know her. He asks the grand duke to spare no effort in searching, but wisely follows the duke as he travels to the last house, where he eventually meets Ella. I could go on about how much deeper the prince’s character is in the live action than the animated, but we must talk about the star of the show.
Ella most obviously displays courage and kindness throughout the whole movie, as she holds her mother’s words close to her heart, and learns how to balance the two traits. She shows courage, when her father asks if he can remarry again, wanting to give him another chance at love, even though a new woman would be taking her mother’s place in the house. When the step-mother and sisters come, she welcomes them with open arms, even giving up her room to make more space for Anastasia and Drizella, whose bounty of things overflow into the entire house. Ella, possibly shows too much kindness and not enough courage at first, becoming an obedient doormat under Lady Tremaine’s abusive command. However, when Ella’s father dies, she loses her only close support, so it is understandable that she would be overcome with grief and unable to stand up for herself. When in a position of abuse or neglect, there is notable courage in continuing to live. Considering the rather short timeline presented from when Ella’s father dies to when she meets the prince, it also makes sense that she would not have felt enough courage to stand up to her step-mother until she had an escape through the prince. Furthermore, even when she meets Kit in the forest, she doesn’t speak ill of her step-family, saying, “they treat me as well as they’re able,” which is surely not true, but she is committed to giving them the benefit of the doubt, and practicing kindness.
Ella definitely shows courage when she shows up to the ball alone, only with the hope of meeting Kit again. At the palace steps she admits that she is frightened, but charges ahead anyway, owning her late entrance and stepping up to Kit on the dance floor even amidst her astonishment that he is in fact the prince. Besides, courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. At the end of the night, when she dashes out to get home before midnight, she runs into the King. She bows, but speaks directly to him, most likely out of turn, saying, “Your son Kit is the most lovely person I’ve ever met, so good and brave, I hope you know how much he loves you”. This sweet encounter delights and surprises the king, who later gives his approval of her to Kit.
Much later on, when the prince arrives at her household at the end of his search, she comes into her courage, standing up to her stepmother. Her kind submission under Lady Tremaine had only resulted in loss and hurt, and when the prince arrives she realizes that she has the power to remove herself from this situation, and break free from abuse. She then walks down to the prince, taking a look at her simple country dress, as the narrator states that “this is perhaps the greatest risk that any of us will take. To be seen as we truly are”. Ella’s courageous steps to leave abuse, and boldly step up to the prince, complement Kit’s steps to stand firm in his love for the kingdom and for Ella and make it more believable that the two will work well together.
When Ella leaves her house, hand in hand with the prince, she looks her step-mother in the face and says “I forgive you”. She lets go of any anger she might have built up under abusive treatment, and chooses to have a fresh start with the prince. The movie ends with a callback to her childhood perspective and that Ella and Kit were “counted to be the fairest and kindest rulers the kingdom had known. And Ella continued to see the world, not as it is, but as it could be, if you believe in courage and kindness, and occasionally, just a little bit of magic.”